Abstract:  The increasingly fierce competitive environment poses a severe challenge to maximize the utility of enterprise knowledge resources. One of the important measures to deal with this challenge is to promote efficient knowledge sharing among employees. Although most enterprises are engaged in knowledge sharing practice, they still face the dilemma of employees refusing to share knowledge. Hence, the understanding of the factors supporting or inhibiting employee’s knowledge sharing behavior has received much attention in practice and research.
A large body of research has confirmed that employee’s knowledge sharing behavior can be affected by many factors. Western scholars have explored the influencing factors of employee’s knowledge sharing behavior from the perspectives of knowledge attributes, individual characteristics and organizational characteristics, and have achieved fruitful research results. Unfortunately, such research results have failed to support Chinese enterprises’ knowledge sharing practice. One potential reason is that most of the existing research places knowledge sharing behavior under "cultural vacuum", and explores the so-called "universal" knowledge sharing mechanism. However, individual behavior is rooted in a specific national cultural context. Therefore, the research of knowledge sharing behavior should not neglect the importance of national culture. National culture should be considered as one of the important factors influencing employee’s knowledge sharing behavior. Meanwhile, relevant cross-cultural studies have shown that the effect of national culture on individual behavior may be interfered by other situational factors. Accordingly, in different situations, the direction and utility of the effect of one specific national cultural variable on employee’s knowledge sharing behavior may be different.
Since most of the previous studies on knowledge sharing were placed under “cultural vacuum”, and few studies focused on differential effects of national culture on knowledge sharing behavior in different situations, the study integrates national culture, knowledge attributes and knowledge sharing behavior into the same research framework from the perspective of cultural and knowledge situations, and aims to answer two research questions: first, how national culture and knowledge attributes directly affect knowledge sharing behavior; second, whether the effect  of national culture on knowledge sharing behavior may differ in different knowledge situations.
Collectivism orientation is one of the typical characteristics of Chinese culture, and was found closely related to individual information/knowledge behavior; thereby this study selects collectivism orientation as the representative variable of Chinese culture. Besides, drawing from previous research, this study selects tacitness of knowledge as the representative variable of natural attributes of knowledge, perceived private ownership of knowledge as the representative variable of social attributes of knowledge, and perceived value of knowledge as the representative variable of economic attributes of knowledge. The research hypotheses are proposed as follows: collectivism orientation positively affects knowledge sharing behavior; tacitness of knowledge negatively affects knowledge sharing behavior; perceived private ownership of knowledge negatively affects knowledge sharing behavior; perceived value of knowledge negatively affects knowledge sharing behavior; tacitness of knowledge positively moderates the relationship between collectivism orientation and knowledge sharing behavior; perceived private ownership of knowledge positively moderates the relationship between collectivism orientation and knowledge sharing behavior; perceived value of knowledge positively moderates the relationship between collectivism orientation and knowledge sharing behavior.
Through a multi-informant (self-report and other-report) survey, 1182 valid samples were collected. The hypothesized relationships were tested by analyzing survey data using multiple regression analysis. The results show that collectivism orientation positively affects knowledge sharing behavior; tacitness of knowledge and perceived private ownership of knowledge negatively affect knowledge sharing behavior; there is an “inverted U-shaped” relationship between perceived value of knowledge and knowledge sharing behavior; perceived private ownership of knowledge and perceived value of knowledge positively moderate the relationship between collectivism orientation and knowledge sharing behavior; tacitness of knowledge does not play a moderating role on the relationship between collectivism orientation and knowledge sharing behavior.
This study contributes to knowledge sharing literature in three ways. First, this study selects collectivism orientation as the representative variable of Chinese culture, and confirmed that collectivism orientation can drive employees to actively participate in knowledge sharing practice. Compared with the previous knowledge sharing research under “cultural vacuum”, this study not only reveals the positive effect of collectivism orientation on knowledge sharing behavior, but also echoes the previous literature view that national culture plays an important role in interpreting individual behavior. Second, this study selects tacitness of knowledge/perceived private ownership of knowledge/perceived value of knowledge as the representative variable of natural /social/economic attributes of knowledge, explores how different knowledge attributes directly affect knowledge sharing behavior. Hence, this study not only reveals the effects of the three kinds of knowledge attributes on knowledge sharing behavior, but also fills in the shortcomings of previous studies that focus on the natural attributes of knowledge and ignore the social/economic attributes of knowledge. Third, this study investigates the moderating roles of different knowledge attributes, and confirmed that perceived private ownership of knowledge and perceived value of knowledge positively moderate the relationship between collectivism orientation and knowledge sharing behavior. By revealing the moderating effects of knowledge attributes, this study not only provides the first empirical evidence that collectivism orientation has a more positive effect on knowledge sharing behavior in the knowledge situations where there is a strong conflict between collective interests and individual interests, but also supports the previous literature view that the effect of national culture on individual behavior will be interfered by other situational factors. In addition, this study also provides the reference for further research exploring the relationships between other Chinese cultural variables (e.g., face orientation, good-relationship orientation, zhongyong orientation) and knowledge sharing behavior in other different situations (e.g., different sharing channels situations, different sharing objects situations).
The findings of this study provide practical implications for management. First, considering the importance of national culture, enterprises should pay attention to the influence of national culture on knowledge sharing behavior, and advocate cultures conducive to knowledge sharing behavior. Focusing on collectivism orientation of this study, enterprises can link collective interests with individual interests through measures such as team performance appraisal and team salary design, thereby enhancing the collectivism orientation of employees. Second, considering the moderating effects of knowledge attributes on the relationship between national culture and knowledge sharing behavior, enterprises should pertinently formulate and implement measures based on the specific knowledge situation to enhance the positive effect of national culture on knowledge sharing behavior. In terms of perceived private ownership of knowledge and perceived value of knowledge in this study, when employees are more inclined to view knowledge as private property or perceive higher knowledge value, collectivism orientation will exert a more positive effect on employee’s knowledge sharing behavior, so meanwhile enterprises should devote more efforts to cultivate collectivism orientation of employees in the meanwhile.

Key words: collectivism orientation, knowledge attributes, knowledge sharing behavior